Spinning Around

Timbaland - The Way I Are
Splendid new single that sounds even better when played very loudly by people who have speakers where their car doors should be.

To My Boy - Eliminate
Bonkers electropop from the Liverpool area. Like all good electro records, this one sounds like the suicide note of a drunken robot that never really worked properly.

Frankie Valli - Beggin’ (Pilooski Edit)
Back in 1998, the entire top 40 singles chart was made up of ‘swinging dance remixes’ of old songs by even older people. Nowadays they are a bit more thin on the ground, but no less effective if done properly. This one is, making the complete lack of sunshine in which to enjoy it all the harder to take.

M.I.A. - Boyz
Making its second appearance, because every time we hear it we get a little bit more excited about M.I.A.’s new album. And also because we heard it the other night while we were very drunk and nearly broke an ankle (and several glasses) leaping from our chair ‘in approval’.

The Doctor Who Theme Tune
The finale of the latest season of Doctor Who, starring the talented and not-exactly-ugly John Simm, went out last week, making this the perfect time to remember how ridiculously amazing the music at the beginning of every episode is.

Hadouken! - The Bounce (Live)
The sound of being strapped to a bass amp and kicked around by giants, this live track just proves how exciting, energetic and downright brilliant Hadouken! really are. Tickets to hear them doing this and much more are floating about right now. You should make it your life’s work to obtain one.

Spinning Around

Daggers - Money
A perfect example of Daggers’ rather glamorous electropoprock, and bloody catchy to boot.


Hadouken! - Dance Lesson
Another ace demo that they’ll probably fuck up (deliberations are still taking place over what they’ve done to ‘Liquid Lives‘), this is Kanye West’s ‘Workout Plan’ on some serious fucking disco biscuits.


Feist - The Reminder (LP)
Boring music that is neither boring nor music. Well, it is music, but you get the idea. Do you? Probably not. Basically, Leslie’s made a brilliant album despite deciding to work in a previously fun-free genre, and we’re still grateful to her for it.

Dragonette - Take It Like A Man
The best song on their album.

Kitsune Maison 4 - Promo Mix
Snazzy little mix to showcase the latest Kitsune compilation, featuring a variety of incredibly fashionable bands including Foals. Volume 3 was amazing, and this one sounds like it could be quite good too.

Groove Armada - Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control)
This week we are mainly enjoying the fact that if you don’t play this song for a week and then suddenly do it sounds exactly 3.8 times better than you remember.

Spinning Around

M.I.A. - Boyz
Material from M.I.A.’s new album (rumoured title: ’Kala’) continues to leak and this, a bonkers sort of space-age Bollywood waltz played backwards, is exactly the kind of thing that makes us think the follow up to ‘Arular’ will be something very special indeed.

Andermay - Entre Tu Y Yo
Shimmery pop from Spain; more information about which can be found in an article about European pop music we are (probably not) going to write next week.

Dragonette - Galore (LP)
This is brilliant. Review next week.

Hadouken! - Liquid Lives (single version)
We’re desperately trying to figure out whether getting rid of the weird beat is the biggest mistake in the history of recorded music, or a career-based necessity. Hmm. At least the chorus appears a lot sooner, and the ’DRINK! - SMOKE! - FUCK! - FIGHT!’ bit is ace.

Tom Fletcher’s Ten Number Ones
Apart from the shit ones.

Rihanna - Umbrella
Unusually for a song with MASSIVE FUCKING NUMBER ONE written all over it, this track actually made it to the top of the charts. Deservedly so too, as this giant-sounding paean to love and friendship is basically one of 2007’s best songs. We’re even willing to admit we were wrong about the Jay-Z bit. Wow, etc.

Spinning Around

Hadouken! - Liquid Lives
More ‘crazy beats + Mega Drive + baseball caps x grime = 2007’ madness from the band who recently had two whole pages in the NME devoted to whether they are shit or brilliant. This should help bolster the case for the latter somewhat, being as it is COMPLETELY AMAZING.

Amerie - Because I Love It (LP)
If Amerie keeps improving at the rate she is doing, she’ll be absolutely brilliant by 2009. She’s already ten times better than Beyoncé, who’s going in the opposite direction.

The Tigerpicks - Disco Punk Electro Funk
Already cited here as being a bit like an indie band making a brilliant stab at being Girls Aloud, this gets released properly this week and is definitely worth your pocket money.

Sergey Lazarev - Shattered Dreams
An update of the Johnny Hates Jazz original which, if it were a stick of rock, would surely have the words ‘AMYL’ and ‘NITRATE’ emblazoned in big bold letters through its core.

Groove Armada - Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control)
This week we are enjoying finally knowing the proper title and the “hey!” bits.

Feist - Mushaboom
It’s not on her brilliant new album but we have been listening to this advert staple a helluva lot lately; mainly because it’s not on her brilliant new album. Did we mention she’s got a brilliant new album? It’s brilliant.

Spinning Around

Groove Armada - Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control)
Every now and again something comes along to provide reason for the continued existence of music. This is one of those things. It is, to put it mildly, FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Calvin Harris - The Girls
A not-entirely-choosy Calvin tells us about all the different types of girl he likes. “I’ve got a lot of love to give”, he says, which is presumably why the list is longer than our arm. Either that or he’s desperate. Anyway, the really important thing here is that Calvin is admitting to being a commitmentphobe - are you listening, Kylie?!!

Battles - Atlas
Anyone who likes listening to songs but not knowing what the fuck is going on could do worse than give this a try. It's also recommended if you've got a thing for elf vocals, overbearing drums and prog rock. And it isn't actually shit!

Feist - My Moon My Man
We haven’t got the foggiest who “Feist” is, but this track and the video that accompanies it are both very good. Shame she forgot to press the stop button before legging it from the studio at the end, mind.

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (LP)
Hilarious Self Parody, more like. A 4/10 at best.

Rihanna - Umbrella
Shades of Rihanna being a pop-lite version of M.I.A. without the rapping here, on a track whose true quality is only revealed after a few listens (and a hasty ffwd past Jay-Z’s bit). Quite why she keeps refusing to actually sing remains a puzzle, but when the songs are as good as this and S.O.S., she could basically fart down the mic for all we care.

Spinning Around

Amerie - Gotta Work
Horns! Drums! Lyrics about making a bit of an effort! If Beyonce had been similarly keen after ‘Crazy In Love’, we might have had this instead of all the dreadful songs she released instead. Brilliant.

Alanis Morissette - 8 Easy Steps
The fuss over her BEP cover made us revisit one of her previous finest moments. This is amazing proto-Avril pop rock, and features the immortal line ‘I’ve been practising my ass off’.

The Tigerpicks - Crazy Juices
This song sounds a bit like Fischerspooner might if they were forty years younger. It’s a high-NRG hands-in-the-air BANGER and ever so slightly bonkers. There is a ‘piece’ about the band further down the page. Scroll to it if you wish, or if you are lazy click here.

Dragonette - Take It Like A Man
Still.

Vicky Nolan - Look Out Your Window
Gorgeous coffee-table strum which is nowhere near as boring as that description makes it sound.

Timbaland - Shock Value
We’re still listening to Tim’s latest epic (but not all in one go). Amazing songs on this album include: Release, The Way I Are, Time, One And Only, Apologize, Come Around. If he’d used those songs as the backbone to the album and put in some of the less-amazing-but-still-good ones, like Give It To Me, around them, it would have been SILLY GOOD.

Spinning Around - Spring 2003 Special!!

Rachel Stevens - Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex
Dangerously good debut single from former seal clubber Ms. Stevens. Bizarrely, she got even better after this, but less popular. A bit like some kind of mutated supervirus.

Phixx - Hold On Me
Phixx weren’t even good enough to be in One True Voice, yet this was a million times better than the bunch of Jason Donovan b-sides that lot released. A proper big boyband song, with “Yeah”s, “Woah”s and other more vocal but still ridiculous lyrics like “I’m weak to the taste of your seduction”. Amazing.

Kelis - Finest Dreams
Richard X established the template for his sexy electro fashionpop with this slinky little number. It gets a bit lifeless in between the first and second minute mark, but mostly this is quite brilliant.

Lumidee - Never Leave You
Summer barbeque staple where it didn’t matter that exactly the same thing happens, repeatedly, for nearly four solid minutes, as long as you had some warm beer, a nearly-cooked hot dog and the ability to ‘tune out a bit’.

Stacie Orrico - Stuck
Pity poor Stacie, who sings here “I hate you, but I love you”. What a predicament. We feel exactly the same way about Pot Noodles.

Mark Owen - Four Minute Warning
Marky!

Kylie Minogue - Slow
After listening to a load of Fischerspooner albums and still deciding not to work with them, this is officially the point when the brave pop poppet’s fun-to-seriousness ratio went a bit wonky.

Spinning Around

Robyn - Robyn
Finally! Review soon.

Darke Horse - Text Me Back
Ace new old metal (metal!!) from Sheffield. Includes a diss-tastic McFly reference. We’ll be writing about this band at some point, they’re very good.

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
- Boom! Shake The Room
Will Smith don’t gotta cuss in his raps to sell records, and nor does he to get on our playlist. Actually features some priceless lines, this: “I see the one I wanna sic come here cutie/I flip 'em around and then I work that booty” - that’s what Justin really means when he talks about rocking your body.

Dragonette - Take It Like A Man
At the age of 15, hip young gunslinger wrote a letter to the NME about wanting to hug the chorus of ‘Hard To Explain’ by The Strokes. This makes us want to do the same. The hugging, not the writing letters to NME.

Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Marginally better than that ‘Underdogs’ tripe, mainly due to the involvement of Nina from the Cardigans and her lovely voice.

*NSYNC - Pop
The second blast from our slightly-less-distant past. This is BRILLIANT, and will one day be seen as a very important pop song.

Ghosts - Stay The Night
The fashion police will lock us up and throw away the key, but this Feeling-meets-Guillemots stomp never fails to incite toe tapping with its bouncy melodiousness. What better way to usher in spring than with lightweight guitar pop?

Spinning Around

We've got a new phone but we still swing it round by the handsfree when a good song comes on.

Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches (Trentemoller Remix)
Robyn’s new single gets brutalised to the point where it becomes less like a simple diss track and more like the soundtrack to an ultraviolent kung fu beat ‘em up from the future.

Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks
So imbued with deep-seated melancholy it sounds like they could barely bring themselves to get out of bed to record it. This is a good thing, by the way. Very pretty.

Cascada - Every Time We Touch (LP)
The exact opposite of the above, this is a completely ridiculous collection that pulls the same quiet bit/loud bit trick on every track, using EXACTLY THE SAME beat each time. Quite literally amazing.

Hilary Duff - With Love
100% slick power pop from the girl/woman who seems to age faster than those kids on that documentary. Y’know, THE EIGHTY YEAR OLD TEN YEAR OLDS or whatever it was called. Basically we’re trying to say that Hilary has grown up very quickly, has she not?

Biffy Clyro - Saturday Superhouse
We usually make a point of not listening to music like this, but Biffy Clyro’s latest is quite good, in an agreeable, FM rock sort of way.

Infernal - Crying When I’m Lonely
Absolutely BANGING stand-on-my-own-two track from the people who did that ‘Paris To Berlin’ song last year. Good, despite (or perhaps partly because of) the occasionally-awful “singing” that goes on.

Heavy Rotation

Move out of their way!
Charlotte Hatherley - I Want You To Know
Charlotte returns with more of her slack-jawed bubblegum rock. It’s nice and everything, but, like bubblegum, loses it’s flavour after a while.

Fred Deakin - The Tryptych (LP)
Not so much a mix CD as a short course in the history of popular music. The lovingly-written sleeve notes are a good read too, so it‘s value for money all round.

The Neon Plastix - 1830s
We’ve been “hammering” this dirty squelch-pop all week. At a very high volume. The bit at the minute-and-a-half mark is one of the reasons we love them.

P Diddy & Keyshia Cole - Last Night
We’ve resisted including this one for a couple of weeks because - let’s face it - it’s by P fucking ‘Diddy’; but that colossal beat and Keyshia Cole’s bit in general mean it can be exiled no longer.

The Horrors - Count In Fives
Shockular, rockular, gothdisco goodness from The Horrors’ shrug-worthy debut album.

Larrikin Love - The Freedom Spark (LP)
Post-Wolf we took a nostalgia boat all the way back to 2006 to rediscover this fine album. Now we’re hoping for a Larrikin Love, Jamie T, Patrick Wolf supergroup to be formed. ‘Happy As Annie’ is the best track, FYI.

Larrikin Love - Happy As Annie
Told you so.

Heavy Rotation

More spins than a t-shirt covered in red wine.

Jarvis Cocker + Beth Ditto - Temptation
Mp3s of Cocker n’ Ditto’s NME Awards duet have ‘surfaced’ online, and it can only be a matter of time before Victoria Newton starts some kind of release campaign, if she hasn’t done so already. Don’t worry if you don’t like Beth’s singing ‘style’ either; on this evidence her throat will be ruined in about 18 months.

Alcazar - Crying At The Discoteque
Ah, the sound of being 16 and drinking ridiculously priced alcopops in ridiculously priced venues surrounded by ridiculously over-dressed teenagers and scary gays. Not a lot has changed for us since then.

Pirate Soundsystem - Crush Mix
25 minutes of bouncy madness from the system, including the ‘joy’ of hearing Whigfield mixed with Vitalic. Recently aired on McSleazy’s Xfm Scotland show, lucky for you it is available on their MySpace.

Maximo Park - Our Velocity
Odd little stomper that rattles along at an appropriate pace before flying off into one of those ‘arms aloft at the indie disco’ moments. This will soundtrack the summer term on university campuses nationwide.

Good Charlotte - Keep Your Hands Off My Girl
Good Charlotte were quite good when they played little pop punk ditties. They were even better when they played 80s sleek-o-pop. Now that they’ve combined the two, they’re fucking brilliant.

Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Still worthy. Review here.

Heavy Rotation

Performing audio cartwheels around our head this week…

Calvin Harris - Acceptable In The 80s
Acceptable in the 80s, 90s and pretty much every decade until music officially dies, DJ and KYLIE PRODUCER Calvin “DJ and KYLIE PRODUCER” Harris really knows his way around a pop song.

Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position (LP)
Absurdly good third album from everyone’s favourite neon troubadour. More on this soon.

Jojo - Too Little Too Late
We recently made plans with a friend of ours to form a Jojo tribute act of sorts, touring the nation’s shopping centres singing her songs. Said “plans” may have been influenced by colossally heavy drinking. The album is fucking shocking, by the way.

Hadouken! - That Boy That Girl
Still.

The Sounds - Tony The Beat
Still.

Kaiser Chiefs - The Angry Mob
Sort-of-but-not-quite title track from their new LP which is the sound of a band waving their collective cock about, safe in the knowledge that they’re the biggest and best at what they do. The ending will be massive “come festival time”, not that you’re getting us anywhere near all that mud.

Heavy Rotation...

What's had us swinging the walkman phone around with glee this week?

Guillemots - Annie, Let’s Not Wait
The kind of song you’d want to run away with, if it were by any means socially acceptable to do so. CD2 features a version of Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Take Me Out’, which is true to the original in every sense and not one of these “ooh let’s make a pop song slow to reveal its true meaning” pieces of bollocks that you normally get off the live lounge.

Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High
We don’t like Fall Out Boy very much but we absolutely love their new album. It is full of great songs. Also contains at least one type of horn, and a song in the boyband “vein”.

The Killers - Sam’s Town
We bought this on the “three good singles” rule and we’re not disappointed. Bling (Confessions of a King) should have been painfully executed at birth, though.

The Enemy - It’s Not OK
This song has a misleading title - it is actually very OK. Nothing more though. “Biggish” chorus.

Pendulum - Hold Your Colour (LP)
Quite why we don’t know, but we’ve been hit recently by an uncontrollable urge to PUT OUR FUCKING HANDS IN THE AIR. A daily dose of completely inappropriate drum n’ bass should be made compulsory.

Robyn - The Rakamonie EP
Please. Release. The. Album. Soon.

12”/80s/POP
We could list all the great tunes on this, but the tracklisting is readily available elsewhere. Best served in small portions, like the nibbly bits at an eighties fondue party.